Buying fake goods online carries increased identity theft risk

Aimee Stanton

A new counterfeit campaign launched by the police is warning of the dangers of identity theft after shoppers buying counterfeit goods online had details stolen.

The ‘there’s more at stake when it’s a fake’ campaign warns shoppers that buying fake goods online could result in identity fraud with personal details being used for scammers to set up new fake websites in the victim's name.

In the last two years alone 400 people have reportedly had their personal details used to open fraudulent websites as a result of buying counterfeit goods online according to the City of London Police’s Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU) who launched the new campaign.

Identity theft remains an increasing problem in the UK with Action Fraud receiving over 15,000 reports linked to identity crime in the last year (April 2017 - March 2017).

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